New paper published in ACM IMWUT (UbiComp) 2021

SkinKit: Construction Kit for On-Skin Interface Prototyping Pin-Sung Ku, Md. Tahmidul Islam Molla, Kunpeng Huang*, Priya Kattappurath*, Krithik Ranjan, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao (*equal contribution) Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT) Dec 2021

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Two papers accepted to ACM ISWC 2021

Delocalizing Strain in Interconnected Joints of On-Skin Interfaces Kunpeng Huang, Md Tahmidul Islam Molla, Kat Roberts, Pin-Sung Ku, Aditi Galada, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) 2021

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A 10-Year Review of the Methods and Purposes of On-Skin Interface Research in ACM SIGCHI Seol-Yee Lee, Md Tahmidul Islam Molla, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) 2021

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Two Best Paper Awards from ACM DIS 2021

HUGE CONGRATS TO THE HYBRID BODY LAB AND ALL AUTHORS ON THE TWO BEST PAPER AWARDS FROM ACM DIS 2021!!

BEST PAPER AWARD FOR WOVENPROBE
WovenProbe: Probing Possibilities for Weaving Fully-Integrated On-Skin Systems Deployable in the Field Kunpeng Huang, Ruojia Sun*, Ximeng Zhang*, Md. Tahmidul Islam Molla*, Margaret Dunne, Francois Guimbretiere, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao (*equal contribution) ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2021
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BEST PAPER HONORABLE MENTION AWARD FOR KNITDERMIS

KnitDermis: Fabricating Tactile On-Body Interfaces Through Machine Knitting Jin Hee (Heather) Kim, Kunpeng Huang, Simone White, Melissa Conroy, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2021

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Two papers accepted to ACM DIS 2021

Congrats to the authors!

KnitDermis: Fabricating Tactile On-Body Interfaces Through Machine Knitting Jin Hee (Heather) Kim, Kunpeng Huang, Simone White, Melissa Conroy, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2021

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WovenProbe: Probing Possibilities for Weaving Fully-Integrated On-Skin Systems Deployable in the Field Kunpeng Huang, Ruojia Sun*, Ximeng Zhang*, Md. Tahmidul Islam Molla*, Margaret Dunne, Francois Guimbretiere, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao (*equal contribution) ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2021

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Prof. Kao receives NSF CAREER Award (~500K)

Prof. Kao is awarded the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2021) , with ~500K in research funding over the next 5 years to support the research agenda of the Hybrid Body Lab. We will be hiring new PhD students in the 2021-2022 academic year to further research in on-skin interfaces and electronic textiles through this grant. Please see info here to get in touch if interested!

The NSF CAREER Program is a NSF-wide activity that provides 5 year awards to tenure-track Assistant Professors, and is one of the most prestigious awards offered by the National Science Foundation.

Feature on Cornell Chronicle (04/15/2021) “Twelve assistant professors win NSF early-career awards.” https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/04/twelve-assistant-professors-win-nsf-early-career-awards

Kao will further her study of on-skin interfaces such as “smart” tattoos and bandages. The project will advance prototyping, design and usages through the development of toolkits that combine traditional crafting methods and unorthodox materials with digital fabrication techniques and electronics. The project aims to introduce girls and rural area youth to interdisciplinary STEM learning through the new application area of on-skin interfaces, while facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration between artists, craftspeople, and STEM researchers to co-invent a more inclusive future for wearable technology.

DEA6040 Future Body Craft featured on Cornell Chronicle

Our course, “DEA 6040 Future Body Craft: Fabricating On-Skin Interfaces” is featured in the Cornell Chronicle. Congrats to the students who were featured — Jeyeon Jo from FSAD, and our very own Heather Kim from DEA.

Jeyeon Jo, doctoral student in apparel design, works on his wearable tech design during a virtual lab for Future Body Craft. (Lindsay France/Cornell University)

Jeyeon Jo, doctoral student in apparel design, works on his wearable tech design during a virtual lab for Future Body Craft. (Lindsay France/Cornell University)

Cornell Chronicle (10/21/2020) “Silver linings: Innovation, kits, tech animate a hybrid semester,” https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/10/silver-linings-innovation-kits-tech-animate-hybrid-semester

‘You always put in an arm’

For some instructors, the challenges of social distancing dovetailed with their research and teaching goals. Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, assistant professor of design and environmental analysis in the College of Human Ecology, aims to use common materials to design wearable tech and smart tattoos – adhesives that are glued to the skin and send signals to devices.

Preparing at-home kits for graduate students in her new class, Future Body Craft, offered the perfect opportunity to do just that.

“My lab is really interested in using everyday materials, and practices that are highly inspired by craft and adapted in an interesting way, so people can actually do this from their homes,” Kao said. “That’s what’s enabling us to run this course. It’s impossible to let students access clean rooms, but because these items are made from pretty accessible tools and materials, we were able to build this kit and ship it to them.”

The kit includes more than 30 items for prototyping, including gold leaf, temporary tattoo paper, embroidery stabilizer, copper wire, conductive thread and tape, several types of batteries, LEDs, small microcontrollers and a mannequin arm.

“You always put in an arm,” Kao said. “For students to prototype they need the mannequin arm to put the tattoo on, see how it works.”

For one of the exercises, the students create an LED tattoo using conductive fabric tape.

The first half of the course included labs via Zoom, where the students used their kits for a series of exercises, such as creating an LED tattoo using conductive fabric tape. In the second half, they’ll design and build their own prototypes.

“For students to be able to actually make these interfaces, integrate the technology and really understand how it works, they need to be able to practice building them,” Kao said. “What’s really important is the materiality.”

For one of the exercises, DEA doctoral student Heather Kim creates an LED tattoo using conductive fabric tape. (Lindsay France/Cornell University)

For one of the exercises, DEA doctoral student Heather Kim creates an LED tattoo using conductive fabric tape. (Lindsay France/Cornell University)

New paper accepted to ACM CSCW 2020

Congrats to the authors on the new paper accepted to ACM CSCW 2020

Probing User Perceptions of On-Skin Notification Displays Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, Min-Wei Hung, Ximeng Zhang, Po-Chun Huang, Chuang-Wen You ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) 2020 (to appear)

Prof. Kao to speak at ISWC'20 Virtual Design Panel (Sept 15th, Tue 12:00pm)

Prof. Kao will speak on the ISWC’20 Design Panel on the design process for wearable technology, held on Sept 15th, Tue 12:00pm.

The International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) is a premier interdisciplinary venue in which leading international researchers, designers, developers, and practitioners in the field present and discuss novel results in all aspects of wearable computing This includes the design, development, and deployment of wearable computing technologies and the understanding of human experiences and social impacts that these technologies facilitate.

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2 papers accepted to ACM ISWC 2020

Congrats to the authors!

Eslucent: An Eyelid Interface for Detecting Eye Blinking Elle Luo, Ruixuan Fu, Alicia Chu, Katia Vega, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) 2020 (to appear)

Online Survey Study on Social Perceptions Towards Color-Changing On-Skin Displays Chuang-Wen You, Min-Wei Hung, Ximeng Zhang, Po-Chun Hung, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) 2020 (to appear)

WovenSkin featured on Cornell Chronicle, DesignBoom, Communications of the ACM, and more!

Congrats to the WovenSkin Team!

Cornell Chronicle Article (07/14/20): Weaving Craft Techniques with On-Skin Technology

DesignBoom (07/15/20): with hybrid body lab's 'wovenskin,' you can feel alerts directly on your skin

Communications of the ACM (07/17/2020)  “'Second Skin' Interfaces Tap Crafters' Expertise”

Advanced Textile Source (07/27/2020) “WovenSkin pars weaving with smart technology”

Interesting Engineering (07/16/2020) “On-Skin Wearable Technology Combined With Traditional Weaving” 

Featuring our lead author, Ruojia Sun weaving on-skin interfaces in social isolation

Featuring our lead author, Ruojia Sun weaving on-skin interfaces in social isolation